The Tower of Babel, Shalom Moskowitz the Galilean, Safed, [mid-20th century]

Tempera on paper (12 x 18 in.; 305 x 458 mm); signed in Hebrew on lower right; matted and framed.

Shalom Moskowitz of Safed (1895-1980) was a folk artist who created a large oeuvre of paintings devoted to the themes of Jewish life. His great-grandparents had immigrated from Eastern Europe to the Holy Land in the eighteenth century, and Shalom lived in picturesque Safed in the Galilean hills for most of his life. Although his artistic talents were discovered late in life, within a short time Shalom attained a worldwide reputation as a talented naïve painter.